Asad Zulfahri is an SEO & Growth Manager at Zapier, a web-based company that helps users connect all their diverse apps like Slack, Evernote, and Dropbox for example. Asad’s thirst for travel is relatively new, but he has approached it as enthusiastically as he did starring in a Malaysian sitcom when he was 10, and building his own websites when he was 13. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

When you were 17, what did you want to be?

Before high school, I was a child actor – I did a small local TV show for three or four seasons. I don’t have the direct translation but the title basically means, “Grandson, Father & Grandfather,” and I was the grandson. I had so much fun. When I was in that phas, I thought, “I’m going to go to Hollywood, I’m going to be a big movie star.” But then my mom said, “Stop, study, go to school.” It was just taking too much time. My mom was basically chauffeuring me everywhere, and I was not doing great in school.

What is the When I Was 17 Project?

When I Was 17 is a blog series dedicated to collecting the varied stories of people's career paths, what they envisioned themselves doing when they were teenagers and how that evolved over the course of their lives. I started this project with the goal of illustrating that it's okay not to know exactly what you want to do when you're 17; many successful people didn't, and these are a few of their stories.